When looking through notes jotted down many years ago at a workers' meeting I found this gem of truth spoken by a preaching giant of yesterday: "Brethren, the congregation has no use for a lazy minister. You will never become a good preacher taking it easy. You must work hard and diligently in your study. If you are willing to put in at least four hours of uninterrupted study every day in the week, you will go a long way toward escaping the deadline."
That bit of advice pricks my soul every time the devil of laziness whispers to drift a little, for there is no place for an ease-loving minister in the cause of God. Weak-hearted, pessimistic, indolent, fearful, shortsighted, lazy, leadership would defeat any cause. We have this warning word in Testimonies to Ministers, page 155: "Many have become lazy and criminally neglectful in regard to the searching of the Scriptures."
No officer or member of the church will ever say, "You must be in your study at such-and-such an hour." No bell will ring, calling the minister to his task. His immediate taskmaster is his own conscience and his avowed purpose to do an efficient and worthy work for his God. The merchant, the lawyer, the doctor, the laborer, and the salesman in the church succeed by keeping everlastingly at it. The teacher has his hours in the schoolroom, does his homework at night, then takes extra courses to qualify for his expanding task. One layman observed, "We can forgive many lapses in a minister, but it is difficult for us to tolerate laziness—mentally, or as shepherd of the flock." He might have quoted these words: "The intellect should be cultivated, the memory taxed. All intellectual laziness is sin, and spiritual lethargy is death."—Testimonies, vol. 4, p. 399.
"Only by a continual improvement of the intellectual as well as the moral powers can we hope to answer the purpose of our Creator. God is displeased with those who are too careless or indolent to become efficient, well-informed workers. The Christian should possess more intelligence and keener discernment than the worldling. The study of God's word is continually expanding the mind and strengthening the intellect. There is nothing that will so refine and elevate the character, and give vigor to every faculty, as the continual exercise of the mind to grasp and comprehend weighty and important truths."--Ibid., p. 545.
A. C. F.
